Pillage - the short answer lies in medieval torture (7)
I believe the answer is:
ransack
'pillage' is the definition.
(I know that pillage can be written as ransack)
'short answer lies in medieval torture' is the wordplay.
'short answer' becomes 'ans' (abbreviation for answer; 'short' asks for an abbreviation).
'lies in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'medieval torture' becomes 'rack' (racking is a kind of torturing. I am not sure about the 'medieval' bit.).
'ans' inserted inside 'rack' is 'RANSACK'.
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ransack that I've seen before include "Search, leaving no stone unturned" , "Rob and despoil" , "Loot or search thoroughly" , "Pillage, plunder" , "Rummage, rifle" .)